Former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero this Monday predicted a decline of the far right in Portugal, similar to what has already happened in Spain, where it also initially grew.
“In Spain, the extreme right – it arrived first than in Portugal – is on the decline and it will be the same here”said Rodríguez Zapatero, guest speaker at the Next Left conference, promoted by the Portuguese Socialist Party, on the theme “They will not succeed! The need to fight right-wing extremism”, which took place in Lisbon this Monday.
The former Spanish head of government said the moment of inequality that has seized the far right — first growing in the United States and then spreading, with the 2008 financial crisis and then the pandemic crisis — shows how populism and extremism grow with fear.
Referring to the former presidents of the United States and Brazil, he predicted that Donald Trump “and his distinguished student, [Jair] Bolsonaro, lost and will not return”, but stressed that it is necessary to “prevent and be attentive”.
Therefore, he asked to affirm “the condition of a single humanity”, to stand against discrimination against immigrants and to defend the right to integration and universal rights, because it is with “equality, peace, coexistence, respect, words that express the principles of democracy” and even with “the struggle for culture” it will be possible to “stop the extreme right”.
In a speech lasting more than half an hour at the conference co-organised with the European Foundation for Progressive Studies (FEPS) and the Karl-Renner Institute, Zapatero left three ideas for action, the first of which was: “strengthen unity of progressive organizations in the world, such as the Socialist International of Spain and Portugal”.
At that time, the also former leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) wanted to hold “a big summit” of the centre-left parties and also advocated that “it is necessary to enter into a dialogue with the centre-right”, given the “essential”.
Zapatero believes that the use of social networks fragments the dialogue, which “should be face to face” and also defended that it is not advisable “to get carried away by the most conservative discourses”.
In the second idea that he presented to an audience of a few hundred people, the former Prime Minister of Spain recalled that the crises – financial 2008, pandemic, climate change – are global and therefore it is necessary “to work as the Charter of the United Nations” when it refers to “uniting all nations”.
“Europe cannot shut itself off”he said, because “if there is no cooperation, crises cannot be overcome”.
“Cooperation, cooperation and cooperation, not competition and confrontation”he underlined.
Finally, Zapatero called for more attention to be paid to inequalities, where the far right is gaining strength, and to promote balance and “a fairer redistribution”.
“That depends on us, not on the extreme right”he argued, recalling that what happened after World War II was this fairer redistribution and that “that was the time when democracy and socialism made the most progress”.
Source: DN
